Bad Cop (Entangled Covet) (18 page)

Chapter Twenty-four

Alice had disappeared without giving him one shred of information that could identify where to find her. Ian roared his frustration and fell to his knees, his chest achingly tight. Then it hit him. The graffiti. He’d seen it before. He’d seen those windows and the square supports down the center of the room. The old Fisher Flour Mill the team had cleared of Slavers a few months back. Was there significance in the fact it was also one of Chimera’s properties? And Luc had mentioned that Ander financed the Chimera Corporation.

Without pause, he leaped to his feet and ran straight into a flash. It would’ve taken at least twenty costly minutes to drive to Harbor Island even if the freeway were clear, which it never was. He barely had time to hope he wasn’t wrong before he came to a jarring stop and collapsed. The recovery time was a bitch, and he couldn’t wait longer than it took to regain his land legs. Too much time to his way of thinking. Over ten minutes had passed between Alice’s disappearance and the time he could stand. He distinctly recalled hearing movement in the room where Alice was held.

She might be dead.

No, she’s alive. She has to be
. He wouldn’t survive it if she weren’t.

At first, he only detected noises from the harbor wildlife and the boats’ hulls squeaking against the bumpers at the marina, but then he caught the rattle of chains and the hum of low, murmuring voices coming from the main building.
Voices
. There were multiple kidnappers, and he had no way of knowing how many.

After a careful recon, he stole into the structure through a broken window barely big enough to squeeze through. He entered a small office and passed into a darkened room lit by a large circle of candlelight. Definitely in the right place. Standing to the side of the open doorway, he risked a quick survey.

Kenji crouched low to the floor. Thick as manure and half as useful, the
Dominus
hadn’t detected his presence. Fuck.
Alice
. Prone on the concrete, blood streaked down the side of her face. When he noticed the pipe in Kenji’s hand, he couldn’t stop his forward momentum. Vision shifting red, he charged from his cover and drove into the bastard like a demon freed from hell.

Kenji hit the ground hard but recovered quickly, nailing Ian’s ribs with the pipe. The air in his lungs whooshed out. It only took a moment for Kenji to rap him three more times and one for good measure to his solar plexus. Damn. He rolled to his feet faster than Kenji anticipated and landed a roundhouse to Kenji’s chin. The
Dominus
reeled back, and Ian delivered another two punches to the man’s midsection. Kenji hunched down to protect his innards.

This wasn’t going to end the fight. He needed a weapon. Ian reached for the KA-BAR in his boot, and Kenji used the delay, taking Ian to the ground. They struggled until Ian got a knee into Kenji’s gut. As the adjuvant instinctively curled inward, Ian slipped his knife and twirled it comfortably into his hand.

Before he could strike, agony tore into him, rendering him immobile. Fire spread through the middle of his back. He fought his trembling fingers, but his knife clattered to the floor. A wrench of his body pulled him to the side. He looked down at a long blade extending from his upper abdomen, and utter disbelief struck him.

What. The. Fuck.

The blade passed in reverse through him, and a kick to his upper back sent him sprawling. He couldn’t stop his roll or brace himself. He couldn’t fucking move anything below his wound. And the pain. The pain made him wish he were dead. His sight blurred and sharpened several times before he could focus on the face hovering over him.

“My, my, love, you do tend to show up in the wrong places,” Otsana said.

What a fool he was. He’d made a Kenji sort of mistake. Even knowing others were present, he’d been too out of his mind to pay attention to his surroundings. He had to have crept right past Otsana. How could he help Alice now?

A biting cold inched through his upper body and the tremors grew worse. He tried to speak, his chest protesting the motion of the effort.

“Ev-everyone knows. You sh-should run.” Better they escape than for Alice to die before they made their getaway. They didn’t need to know no one knew where they were. He’d been rash to chase a lead without calling Dec. Or he’d been just plain desperate to get to Alice.

Grabbing his ankles through his boots, Otsana only laughed while she dragged him next to Alice and left him without explanation. Kenji followed her into the other room with a satisfied smirk in his direction.

The pain grew into a full-body ache with the power of a steamroller behind it, and he groaned. Alice stirred beside him at the sound. Slowly, she rolled to her stomach and pushed up, a whimper escaping her at the movement.

“Alice,” he whispered. Her head jerked to the side, her gaze meeting his.

“Oh God, Ian. What are you doing here? How did you find me?” And then she saw the blood. Her red eyes flared bright with what Ian recognized as hunger, but she gasped when she caught sight of his wound. “No!”

“Alice, y-you have to g-get out.” His chest jerked spasmodically, making speech nearly impossible.

“I can’t. They put chains on me. They heard me trying to leave, and Kenji caught me. And how am I supposed to carry you? I can barely walk on my own.”

“You’re gonna l-leave me.”

A fierce expression came over her. “I’m not leaving you, you stupid hick.”

“I-I c-can’t move.”

Her beautiful eyes filled with tears. “What did they do to you?” She frantically staunched the blood at his belly, her hands quaking nearly as much as his. Like stopping the bleeding would help. Otsana had severed his spine, ensuring him a long, slow death. It was a long ago used technique to disable a vampire until you could dispense with further action. Things like interrogation—or torture. Often an
Immortalis
would be left in such a condition to slowly starve or bleed to death. Otsana had known exactly what she was doing. She was, after all, old enough to have survived the last civil conflicts between the
Immortalis
castes.

“What can I do, Ian?”

“C-come here. Let me s-see the lock.”

She scooted closer immediately and turned around but questioned him anyway. “Why?”

He smiled, though she couldn’t see with her back turned. “I w-was a th-th-thief when Sean f-found me.”

She twisted to see over her shoulder. “The locks. That’s how you kept getting into the VLO office. And my house.”

He jerked his chin down in a nod. After drawing his custom-made tool from his belt, he maneuvered his fingers over the lock, feeling it out. Otsana and Kenji hadn’t expected anyone with lock-picking skills to show up so it was only a simple padlock. All he had to do was use two pins on his tool, and then she’d be free. Should have been simple, but it took four tries before he could get his fingers to work accurately enough to pop the lock open. He held his hand under the chain as he unwound it from her wrists to keep it from making too much noise

“Now get the fu-fuck out.”

She turned to him and shook her head adamantly. “I won’t let you die here like this.”

“This will b-be for nothing if you d-don’t get away.” He knew ordering her around would do no good.
Frustrating wench
. So he did the only thing he knew would work. “Please, turtle.” His voice broke over the plea.

More agonized than he’d ever seen her, even when she’d laid in much the same deadly situation in his arms, her tears spilled over. A soft, keening cry came from her before she drew a shuddering breath. “I love you, Ian.”

Her passionate whisper eased the cold creeping over him. “No m-matter what, do not stand at my gr-grave and weep. That’s a p-poem. Promise m-me you’ll read it and understand.” He cupped her cheek, willing every ounce of his feelings into her. “I’ll be with you always. I love you.”

Blood streaked her face from his fingers, but he didn’t care. He needed to touch her one last time. Leaning down, she kissed him, one of her soft, tender, moist kisses, the kind that made him think of warm, cozy nights curled in front of a fire with the smell of fresh cookies in the air. His eyes stung so he kept them closed before his own sorrow made her change her mind.

“Hurry,” he said. He sensed her move away, but she’d been careful not to make a sound. When he opened his eyes, she was at the far end of the room, slipping out through the rear entrance. Good girl, his wench. He knew she’d find Dec or Ezra as fast as she could. There was still a chance he might make it to see another dusk. Maybe not much of a chance, but it was something to hold on to.

Countless minutes passed while he drove himself insane with worry. Had Alice made it far enough away? It had been a while since he’d heard anything coming from the room Otsana and Kenji had slipped off to. What the hell was involved with this ritual anyway? He had no answers as to why they would murder
Immortalis
, but it didn’t much matter since his death was imminent. The team was going to be fucking boring without him. Despite the pain it caused, he chuckled, but cut off when he heard a sound from the adjoining room.

His time was up. Kenji emerged from the darkened doorway.

“Finished saying your good-byes yet?” The
Dominus
darted his gaze around the room, and then his face scrunched up. “What’d you do with her, Tracker?”

Pain temporarily forgotten, Ian stared at him in disbelief. The ancient vampire sounded like someone had just stolen his tricycle.

“
Vesania
,” he said.

Kenji jerked back as if he’d been slapped. “Nnnnno.”

Yeah. Hell, yeah, it was
vesania
. All of this—all of the murders, Alice’s kidnapping, and a sword shoved into his back—was over a nutcase who didn’t know when to call it quits. A cluster of nutcases. His fuzzy mind circled the details of the case, trying to sort, rearrange, and fit them together.

With several of them working together, they could easily take turns gaining an alibi for at least one murder, thereby eliminating each of them from the suspect list. It hadn’t occurred to him there could be an even larger group. There had to be more of them than just these two. And Revenant, however he had ended up involved.

He needed to know what Ander’s link was to all of this. Of all of them, he’d be the untouchable one, just like Hes had been. Ian would have laughed again if it didn’t hurt so goddamned much. As if he could do anything about any of this.

When Kenji came at him with a knife that put his KA-BAR to shame, Ian couldn’t fool himself any longer.

He was about to die.

Chapter Twenty-five

Alice made it to the front of the building, her heart pounding and breaking with each beat. How could she just leave Ian? He’d never let her down, not really. All of her fears about him seemed so trivial now that she faced losing him. Tears impairing her vision, she tripped over something big and soft.

The scent of blood hit her hard, only it didn’t make her hungry but rather nauseous. There was something off about it that repulsed her. She rolled to her rear and picked the gravel from the cuts on her hands where she’d skinned them. When she saw the body her foot was propped on, she recoiled. A guard. Dead, and that was the off-putting scent. Which explained why
Immortalis
couldn’t drink blood that wasn’t from a living vein. It would be like chugging fouled milk—with clumps and all. A shudder passed through her.

Alice stared at the guard’s open, lifeless eyes, but her mind transposed Ian’s face. That would be him. There was no way she could get help for him in time. Rubbing the tears from her eyes, she pushed to her feet. Another guard lay several feet away, curled in a fetal position. There was no use checking his pulse. So much loss. She couldn’t just leave and risk them getting away. Couldn’t let them kill Ian.

A quick search of the guards yielded no weapons. The one closest to the building had an empty holster, which was rare. Rent-a-cops didn’t often carry firearms. Then she saw the glint of light off metal against the building. After grabbing the pistol from the debris along the wall, she breathed a sigh of relief to find the magazine full.

She thumbed the safety off and went in from the back where she’d emerged earlier, taking caution with each step. Her feet were bare. Touching the filthy floor with her naked skin gave her the heebies enough, but the shards of glass, stray nails, and twisted metal in the rubble could wound her and make noise.

The sounds of a struggle came from around the doorframe into the next room, where Ian was lying paralyzed and helpless. To hell with stealth. She raced through the threshold. Kenji bore his weight down over a wicked-looking knife, while Ian fought as best he could with only his upper body to hold the steel from his throat. She swore her heart seized.

“Stop!” she screamed. Kenji jerked back on his knees and grinned. It wasn’t a pretty grin.

“Why, Ms. Capshaw, you’ve returned. I knew you’d miss me.”

“Alice, what the fuck?” Ignoring Ian’s devastated words, she focused on the source of danger in the room.

She drew closer, careful to stay out of Kenji’s reach. “You’re batshit insane if you think I’ve come for you. You’ll be executed for what you’ve done.” Her hands were steady with determination as she aimed the pistol sights on the
Dominus
. This is why she’d practiced endless hours at the indoor range, for the blessing of steady hands on her weapon.

“I think not.” He tossed the blade and stood with his hands up. “All I’m guilty of is kidnapping an infant and assaulting a Tracker. Nothing else will stick.”

“You make me sick.”

He giggled. “Aren’t you going to read my rights, Ms. VLO? Take me to detainment?”

“Fuck your rights.”

The gun had a stiff recoil, but her aim was true. One shot to the heart, one to the throat, and one to the center of his forehead. Triple tap—the most effective method of killing
Immortalis
instantly.

The shakes invaded her hands. She didn’t feel her fingers let go but heard the clash of the gun hitting the concrete.

“Oh God.” She’d just killed a man in cold blood. An unarmed man—sort of—who had all the appearances of surrendering.
Welcome to the dark side, Alice
. Ian was right. There’d be no forgetting this ever happened, but then no other option would have satisfied her. Kenji had been murdering her man.

Ian
. She darted toward him but hadn’t made it halfway to him when a grating shriek pierced her sensitive eardrums. Rage contorted Otsana’s scarred face as the woman flew at her with fingers curved like claws ready to tear her eyes out. Alice heard Ian’s shout. Then she braced for the hit, but it never came.

In a blur of shadow and pale hair, an avenging warrior-angel tackled Otsana to the floor. The enraged shrieks transformed into the terrified screams of an animal caught in a bear trap.

Ezra.

Crap, Alice felt like screaming, and he wasn’t after her. The man was pure, unholy death. Eyes blazing the flames of hell, his fangs ripped vicious and deadly at Otsana’s throat.

The woman fought against the vamp’s hold but it was a vise she couldn’t break. Her cries went guttural. She slipped something from Ezra’s belt. A moment later, blood gushed from her throat. It was so sudden, Alice cried out. The
Domina
had stabbed herself. What kind of demented desperation would that have taken?

Dec’s sudden touch on Alice’s shoulder made her jump. She clutched her chest and glanced back toward the doorway. Luc, Kade, and Izel. Guns was missing, but thank God they’d arrived. Someone had to be able to help Ian.

“Alice.” Dec gave her a little shake. Fixing her gaze on his worried face, she avoided Otsana’s gurgling death only a few yards away. “It’s all right. She deserved it. She was sneaking up on you while Kenji kept you occupied. What did they do to Ian? He’s out cold.”

“One of them stabbed him. He’s paralyzed.” She caressed Ian’s now-colorless cheek. “He’s lost a lot of blood. Can we get a donor?”

“No.” Dec tightened his grip. “It’ll take more than a donor to fix this.”

Her blood pressure shot up. “What are you telling me?”

Kade crouched beside to her. “I’m going to be straight with you.”

Luc came up next to Kade. “When are you not?”

With a long-suffering sigh, the prince ignored his friend. “You have to mate him here and now. Make your choice before he’s too far gone to recover.”

Her jaw dropped and her gaze dove straight below Ian’s belt level. “Right here?” Hell, if it was her only option…

The men laughed, despite the dire circumstances.

“Not like that,” Dec said. “It’s a mating bond. If you choose him, it’s a lifelong commitment, Alice. Then you can feed him. Restore him, hopefully.
Immortalis
blood is no good to an
Immortalis
without that bond. Or family bond, but that’s another matter and Ian doesn’t have any blood family, only us.”

Something about that made her sad. She had no family either since Zach died, but they could have each other. “I don’t know how to do it. What do I do?”

“What do you feel for him?” Dec asked. He looked at her as if he already knew the answer.

“Love.”

Kade grasped her hand. “If that’s the case, you should feel something pulling at you, something in him.”

“Sounds like you might know what you’re talking about,
Sir Lancelot
.” Ezra came into her field of vision. His leathers were slick and shiny, and she didn’t want to think about why.

“Sir Lancelot? Stop talking to my woman, Ezra.” Kade turned his attention back to Alice. “You’ll have to bite him and grab onto it. Don’t let go. Take it into you.”

“But he’s lost so much blood.”

“He’ll either survive it or he won’t, but if you want him, you have to try.” Kade sounded heartless, but there was impatience and distress in his eyes and body language. “If he doesn’t make it, you’ll suffer without him.”

“I’ll suffer without him anyway.” There were no truer words. She couldn’t lose him now. If she had to risk his life to save it, she would. He didn’t have a chance without that risk as it was.

“Is that all? A bite?”

“Yes,” Kade said. “After that, if it works, he’ll instinctively do the rest.”

An uncharacteristic pang of shyness washed over her as she leaned over Ian, but the second she caught the scent of him, there was no one else in her world. She braced on one arm while her other hand curled into his soft chestnut hair at his nape. A faint pulse beat at his throat, and she pressed her lips against it. That force inside of him that drew her roared to life, and her heart slammed against her sternum as if it longed to jump into him through his.

Fangs extending in an effortless slide, her eyes grew warm like they did when she was hungry. Only it wasn’t hunger. A deep and humbling emotion swept everything away but Ian. He consumed her, body and soul. She cupped the back of his neck and sank her fangs into that pulse at his throat and drank him into her.

That magnetic presence in him flowed into her without hesitation, his essence, and she embraced every bit of it. She soared into a high unlike anything she’d ever experienced, beyond the joining of their bodies. Tears trickled from under her closed eyelids at the beauty of it. She wanted this to last forever. Then Dec’s sharp tug on her shoulders pulled her away.

She gradually returned to awareness. Had she taken too much? Afraid to open her eyes, she did so reluctantly. No one in the room had breathed a word. It was surreal, almost ceremonial.

Ian’s eyelids flickered and then she was gazing into his eyes. He smiled weakly at her but didn’t speak. What came next? Would he know? He must have because he pushed his fingers into her hair, and feeble though his touch was, he urged her closer. Instinctively, she offered her throat at his lips. He took her offering with a deep, satisfied sigh.

As he drank from her, it wasn’t the intense desire and arousal dropping her full weight onto him but a joining of spirit that shook her to her foundation. He was hers. She was his. There’d be no parting them. It was an unbreakable consummation. If someone had tried to explain it, she couldn’t have fully understood until this moment.

After he withdrew his fangs and sealed her wounds, absolute exhaustion permeated her to her follicles. Dec had to bodily lift her from Ian, and she could barely hold her head up. When she did finally, she was in awe. The onlookers wore their reverence on their sleeves.

“Thank you, Alice,” Dec said, his voice suspiciously unsteady.

“Always knew you had a crush on him, Dec,” Ezra said, sending her into a shaky laugh.

“Will he be okay?” she asked. “They can’t execute him now. Can they?”

All eyes turned to Izel, who stood statuesque behind the semicircle of Ian’s teammates. She eyed each of them in turn without an iota of expression, and then her gaze landed on Ian, who’d passed out again.

“Why would he be executed?” Izel asked blithely. “Kenji was the guilty party in the unlawful transformation, and he’s already dead through a simple matter of self-defense. Killian’s not even an adjuvant. We can go now.”

With that, she turned on a spiky-heeled boot and left the rat-infested building. Alice felt more than heard the collective outlet of tension in the room.

“Hey, Dec,” Luc called. “Isn’t Otsana wearing the same catsuit that—”

“Don’t finish that thought.” Dec glowered at him, and then grumbled, “I’m never gonna live that down.”

“Not in this century.” Ezra laughed with glee. Hard to believe that earlier he was the Grim Reaper incarnate.

“How’d you find us?” she asked.

“
Someone
left a trail of destruction in his wake.” Ezra waved toward Ian’s prone form. “He must have flashed like a drunkard, he ran into so many things. It wouldn’t have taken a Tracker to find him.”

Oh, Ian
. Alice climbed from Dec’s arms and cradled Ian’s head in her lap. Brushing a cupid-like curl from around his ear, his adorable ears that stood out just a teensy bit, she couldn’t help tracing a fingertip around the edge of one.

Kade cleared his throat. “It’s nearly dawn. We’ve got Dec’s Escalade outside to get us back. He’ll end up sleeping a while, probably until next twilight.”

“You’ll probably sleep just as long,” Dec added. “He needed a lot of blood. You look like you’re about to fall down anyway.”

“I feel…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, and she sounded outright slurring drunk. Had the blood loss been that bad?

“Don’t worry, Alice,” Dec said. “It’s the sunrise. We’ll take care of Ian. You can sleep on the way to the Akkadian Towers. You’ll stay there tonight. And by the way, nice shooting, Tex. Remind me to never piss you off.”

Ezra lifted Ian easily and carried him out while Alice kept a wobbly pace with Dec’s support. She made it safely into the backseat and sank against the leather upholstery like a blob of jelly. Within moments, she was dead to the world.